Costa Rica Immersion A: Hola desde La Legua!

Immersion A has arrived safe and sound in our new home, La Legua. After a long day of travel we were greeted the first night by a village full of smiling faces awaiting our arrival. We moved into the gymnasium where we introduced ourselves to everyone and met our host families. Dozens of children ran every which way, alive with excitement for the new visitors to their town. The families of La Legua are very excited to recieve our students, and just about every family has several adorable children for our students to practice Spanish with. The past couple of days have been filled with wonderful experiences of sharing our cultures and forming bonds with the community.

Our first day of work was hard, but very satisfying, and we impressed many of the Costa Rican workers with our assembly line system of moving cinder blocks. We are building a retaining wall for an embankment in the village, as well as many other odd jobs such as painting buildings, sanding school desks, teaching English, and extending a sidewalk. We are optimistic and inspired to give back to the community that has opened up their homes to us.

So far the biggest challenge has been keeping up with the enormous portions that our host families have been serving us for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Every host family has taken so much pride in offering us the warmest hospitality they possibly can. It`s a wonderful treat to meet people who pride themselves so much on their selflessness and generosity.

My three brothers have been extremely helpful in helping me learn Spanish. We`ve established a system where they look up words in my Spanish-English dictionary and give them to me to use in conversation. I`m also leaarning quite a lot of soccer vocab from playing with the children of the town. I`m enjoying my stay thoroughly. -Benno

I couldn`t have asked for a more welcoming family! I`ve enjoyed getting to know my younger siblings so much. I can`t wait to learn more about the culture of this wonderful small town we are living in. – Jojo

I`m enjoying the first few days in La Legua and I`m very appreciative of being part of this community. I feel very comfortable with my family and I`m excited to see what adventures the rest of the trip holds. -Emily

We love to hear about the trip on your blog. We are leaving Boston tomorrow and heading to Maine. We think of you often as we travel along. Hope your host family and you are having a great time. Call us when you can.

katy, we would love to hear your comments on the blog, we miss you so much but are so excited to hear every detail that gets passed along. hope you are having the time of your life. we love you so much mom dad and tyler!